Hospice is a concept of caring borrowed from medieval times, where travelers, pilgrims and the sick, wounded or dying could find rest and comfort. The contemporary hospice offers a program of care to patients and families facing a life threatening illness encompassing medical, nursing, spiritual, and psychological care. It is more than a medical alternative, it is an attitude toward death and the process of dying. Terminal disease is managed so patients can live comfortably until they die. The hospice program in the United States has evolved in part as an attempt to compensate for the inadequacies of the present medical system, particularly in caring for patients with a terminal illness. Hospice care has grown from an alternative health care movement to an established component of the American health care system. The modern hospice movement began in 1967 when Cicely Saunders opened St. Christopher's Hospice in London England. In the late 1960's, several Yale University students invited Dr. Saunders to come speak at Yale. These students were inspired to create a similar service in the United States. They opened the Connecticut Hospice in Branford, Connecticut and pioneered the hospice movement in the United States. This became the nation's first specially designed hospice care center. What is Hospice care? In an attempt to answer, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a statement in 1990 about the philosophy and techniques of hospice care. A.Hospice affirms life and regards dying as a normal process. B.Hospice neither hastens nor postpones death.

C.Hospice provides relief from pain and other distressing symptoms associated with dying. D.Hospice combines aspects of psychosocial and spiritual care. EHospice offers a support system to help patients live as actively as possible until death. F.Hospice offers a support system to help the family cope during the patient's illness and during the bereavement process. We can see that the hospice concept is a bio-psychosocial approach to the dying process, concerned with biological, psychological, and social health. Because of its proponents, Hospice is considered a more humane and sensible approach to terminal illness, combining care, comfort, and support of family and friends as the individual faces death. Their concern for dignity and for maintaining quality of life rather than mere quantity lead to the following practical principles as an appropriate approach to care for the dying and their families. The patient must be as symptom-free as possible in order to enjoy the remaining portion of their life as fully and comfortably as is possible.

Physicians, nurses and other health care employees must be easily accessible to the patient and family. The same health care team should provide care for the patient, whether at home or in the hospital. The patient's and family's life style must be preserved, and their life philosophies respected by the health care practitioners. The loneliness, isolation and fears of abandonment are to be expected and should be dealt with accordingly. No one person can fully meet the needs of the dying patient, instead, a multidisciplinary team must be available to deal with any needs the patient or family may have. The patient should be treated as a person, not a disease. The family must receive adequate support to help in coping with the impending loss of a loved one. The terminally ill patient must be allowed to give as well as receive. The self-respect, identity and freedom of the dying patient should be built up. The family must feel a sense of participation in care giving and in the decision-making. The primary care person attending to a patient at home needs support and occasional relief.

Several issues pertaining to hospice care that are worthy of discussion are individuality, quality of life, palliative care, assisted suicide, access to hospice, benefits of hospice care over traditional care, hospice development,...

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Business Plan: St. Francis Hospice LLC
Alphonsius Menkefor
University of San Francisco
Management of Financial Resources
N763
November 28, 2013
Abstract
The economic outlook for a limited liability hospice company in the current healthcare environment is generally favorable. The Affordable Care Act regards effective hospicecare as an essential component in healthcare reform because it has the potential to provide better quality of life for patients and reduce healthcare cost. The public is becoming more aware of hospice services and enrolment rates in the Medicare sponsored program has seen significant growth in recent years and is projected to continue well into the next decade. In this paper an executive summary is presented to indicate a favorable market environment. SWOT analysis is conducted to further identify extraneous variables. A start-up cost analysis is presented and project goals and major miles stones are documented.
Business Plan: St. Francis Hospice LLC
Executive Summary
The Medicare hospice benefit covers palliative and support services for beneficiaries with a life expectancy of six months or less who choose to enroll in the benefit. In 2009, nearly 1.1 million Medicare beneficiaries received hospice services from nearly 3,500 providers, and Medicare expenditures totaled $12 billion. The hospice payment...

...Three elements of hospicecare include: the hospice social worker, financial counseling, and a chaplain. “The hospice social worker constitutes a pivotal part of the team. The social worker spends considerable amount of time working with families, thus enabling family members to communicate with each other” (Leming & Dickinson, 2011, p. 209). Financial counseling is an element of hospicecare because, “patients and families have often exhausted their financial resources at the time of care, so attention is given to seeking other forms of third-party reimbursement” (Leming & Dickinson, 2011, p. 209). A chaplain is an element of hospicecare because they “direct pastoral care to patients and their families, counsel other members of the care-giving team on spiritual issues, and try to involve clergy of the community in the care of their own people” (Leming & Dickinson, 2011, p. 209). These elements can be compared to palliative care. “Palliative care seeks to satisfy the needs of patients and their families in several domains including the physical, psychological, social, and spiritual” (Leming & Dickinson, 2011, p. 204). Another element of hospice that I thought was important was volunteers. “Volunteers serve as a member of the hospice team by sharing...

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Risk and Quality Management Assessment: HospiceCare
HCS/451
HospiceCare
The only two things that are guaranteed in life are birth and death. It seems that every time I tell my husband that his drinking habits are going to be the death of him one day. He always responds by saying “We’ve all got to day someday in one way or another, so why not enjoy life while you have it”. But in some cases the choices that we make will often determine whether we live to see the age of 90 verses just the age of 40 or 50. Nevertheless, whether it is death by a life full of bad choice, by accident, or by the luxury of old age. My husband is absolutely correct in saying we all have to die one day and because of that fact hospicecare is available. This will be an in depth description of the hospice organization as a whole. As well as the demographics of whom they serve and the types of resources and services the organization has to offer its clientele. This executive summary will also including a summary of the risk management and quality management operatives that are associated with hospice organizations as a whole.
Hospice Description
The hospice program was pioneered in England back in the early 1970’s. It was a program established to assist patients and their families with end-of-life care. A hospice...

...﻿ HospiceCare
1.0 Introduction
1.1 Definition
1.1.1 HospiceCareHospicecare refers to an exceptional program that offers care services to individuals who are fatally ill and their family members. It is offered to patients who have been acknowledged by doctors as having completely exhausted all forms of cure there is and they are destined to die. These services include mental, emotional, spiritual physical and medical support which are aimed at ensuring maximum comfort and hope to the dying patients as well as to their loved ones. It basically helps in coping and adjusting with the challenges at hand. Such terminal diseases include cancer, HIV/AIDS, heart or kidney failures among others.
1.1.2 Palliative care
Palliative care refers to a specialty that aims at offering relief to seriously ill patients from painful and stressful symptoms. Such symptoms include physical pains, loss of breath, sleep or appetite, tiredness, nausea and many others. It helps a patient comprehend the options of their treatment.
1.1.3 Comparison
Hospicecare is offered to patients whose diseases have been confirmed terminal hence medical cure is no more considered important, while palliative care is offered at any period, not necessarily in the worst...

...Hospice in Long Term Care
Jacqueline B. Conde
University of Phoenix
Summary of Article One
Article one is an editorial from the International Journal of Palliative Nursing. The author discusses the need for development of palliative care initiatives in long-term care settings. According to Froggatt (2005), “An increasing number of senior citizens in the United Kingdom are dying in the long-termcare setting” (p. 560). Approximately 20% of senior citizens aged 65 years of age and over die in long-term care compared to a relatively lower percentage in hospicecare (Froggatt, 2005). With these observations of the author, she discusses the concern of providing adequate resources to increasing staff levels and knowledge to care for this vulnerable population residing in the long-term care setting.
Adequate resources such as education and support to long-term care staff in providing care to the dying patient and family members is a priority in palliative and hospicecare. Palliative care practitioners, hospice and palliative care nurses, and social workers need to come together at a local level establishing ways and using tools to fit the setting of care in the long-term care...

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HospiceCare Plan
Walden University
HospiceCare Plan
Mrs. Thomas has a history of breast cancer and is status post bilateral mastectomies with subsequent radiation and chemotherapy treatments. She has recently been diagnosed with lung metastasis and further treatment is not recommended by her physician and due to a poor prognosis he is recommending palliative care. Mrs. Thomas has been spending most of her days in her bed crying. She has had very little contact with her sons and their families as they live out of state and she has voiced that she doesn’t want to burden them with her illness. Mr. Thomas is attempting to provide for his wife, yet he suffers from chronic depression and is showing signs of increasing depression and often forgets to take his medications. Mrs. Thomas’s physician has made a referral to the local community health nurse to assist Mrs. Thomas and her family. The community health nurse’s role is unique in that she is knowledgeable of the resources available in the community to assist clients and families. The nurse can serve Mrs. Thomas and her family by assessing the current needs of the family, providing information about available resources that may be of assistance to the family as well as providing referrals as appropriate for any treatment and care that Mrs. Thomas will require now and in the future in dealing...

...The UnitedStates in one of the richest, most populous and most powerful countries in the world and plays a central leadership role in the world. On the world stage, the U.S. often challenges other countries about their records regarding human rights. Yet the UnitedStates is failing its own citizens by not granting every citizen access to basic health care. Many citizens in the UnitedStates needlessly suffer and die each day due to the inequities of the health care system in the U.S. This is a horrible national catastrophe! The UnitedStates needs to provide universal health care to all of its citizens and legal residents. While the issue is very complex and touches many people and institutions, it is a problem that can and must be solved.
The UnitedStates has one of the worst health care systems in the world and is the only developed democracy without a universal health care system. France has a universal health care system that is funded by taxes from income, from pharmaceutical companies, and health harming products such as tobacco. There is a co-payment for certain services, but every citizen is entitled to health care. France spent 10% of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on health care in 2000. Denmark,...

...Healthcare coverage is an important factor in all Americans lives and sadly enough most are unable to afford the cost of health care or know where to go to receive and have the right resources to help them obtain free or affordable healthcare. Some people are relying on their jobs to have healthcare insurance available for them and their families but it is also an issue when it comes to finding a job, not only a job but a job with the benefits of having affordable healthcare for their whole family. Over the years the UnitedStates has came a long way in healthcare but I still do not believe that the help is targeted at the right people who need it.
Stakeholders contribute to making the current health care system in the UnitedStates too complex and unmanageable because they are not thinking about everyone. When I say everyone I mean the rich, poor, young, and old. They are mainly thinking of themselves and how they can profit off of the healthcare system or save money that they already have. They stakeholder I believe has the most significant impact on the health care system is the large companies that try to get the best deal on their end while still making the employees happy. When they get the best deal for their corporation I believe they are making the prices for others rise because the insurance company has to supplement that money that they are missing out on...